...on the edge of this corner of southwestern North Dakota, and on the edge as a mom and a pastor...

September 2013

09/26/2013

Not going to church means you are missing an audible word of forgiveness. A word that releases you from believing you can ever be good enough. A word that can only be truly heard after you admit, along with a community of people, how much you utterly failed at your attempts to be good enough over the past week.

Not going to church means you miss tasting the grace of God that a Savior had to die for you to get. The taste of life in a wafer of bread and a sip of wine, reminding you what it is to ingest life, in contrast to a consumptive culture that offers you indigestion of body, mind and spirit.

To me, as much as both of those things, among other things, not going to church means you miss out on something only the church truly gets. Only the church, I believe, has retained throughout the centuries the sacredness, the joy, and the wonder of bringing together every single generation.

It is one of the most moving dimensions of church life. Even though there is so much the church does wrong and has and will continue to do wrong, this is our gift to the world.

It is every generation sitting in the same room while a beloved organist plays a familiar tune. Some sing loudly, others silently, and all sing together. Musical words that wrap around a room and fill it with hope.

It is every generation confessing and accepting together the gift of forgiveness.

It is every generation telling and hearing an ancient, but not forgotten, story about God's great love for God's not-so-great people, found in the Scriptures.

It is every generation standing, kneeling, being wheeled to, or being carried to a table for Holy Communion. Some eat and drink, some receive a blessing. The old, the young, and everyone in between, recipients of the same simple and even more mysterious treasure of the sacrament.

It is a variety of generations countering a culture that tends to separate the generations. The church, it seems, believes faith must be passed, not down, but around the generations. The old teach the young, the young teach the old, and those of us in the middle are simply part of the circuit.

After worship tonight, I watched a woman who is my mom's age teach a middle schooler how to operate the projector and laptop. Then, I saw another woman, a little younger, teach a junior high student the ancient names of the "dishes" used for Holy Communion.

I would suppose such holy moments happen at each worship service, I just may not stop to notice. Tonight, I did. I'm glad, this time, that I did not miss it.